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June 17, 2005
Ethics reform effort falls flat
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
But lawmakers have gone home and left little for advocates of good government to crow about. After the dust settled, the Legislature declined to overhaul the law intended to keep politicians on the straight and narrow. Of the more than half dozen ethics bills introduced this session, two substantive changes were made to the Nevada ethics laws. Bills that addressed the specific violations of impeached and convicted state controller Kathy Augustine died in the Senate. Also rejected were measures to keep officials from using the "bad legal advice" defense, to stop politicians from raising funds while in office and one that would have cracked down on cronyism. "It's disappointing, certainly," said Craig Walton, an ethics professor at UNLV, who helped pull together recommendations as part of a Clark County Ethics Task Force. "A whole lot of the work was done in good faith. ... and it all got shot down." Much of it died in the Senate where Republican leaders said they don't believe the work needs to be done in the first place. Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, attributed the fervor of ethics reform to a mix of "political posturing" and bad policy. "You know, my evaluation is that there was a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of substance," he said. "I think we have a good ethics law that's pretty clear. I think there were a lot of things proposed that were not necessary." Among the bills the Senate deemed unnecessary was one pushed by Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, AB419 and its reincarnation of SB386. The bills would have specifically barred public officials from using public resources and employees for campaign work - one of Augustine's violations. It also would have doubled some ethics fines. Though Perkins hyped the measures in his opening day remarks, AB419 died in a Senate committee and SB386 died the last night of the session when the Senate failed to approve changes before adjourning. "At a time when we appear to have so many ethically bankrupt elected officials, this would have been the perfect session to correct some of those problems," Perkins said afterward. The changes that did make it through the process are important but piecemeal, said Stacy Jennings, executive director of the Nevada Ethics Commission. One provision changes the definition of "public official" to include administrative positions. That will require city and county managers also to file financial disclosure reports. "We wanted to make it very clear that if you're handling contracts, managing them, you should at least be doing a financial disclosure to ensure everything is on the up and up," said Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas. Giunchigliani also backed AB64, which now forces officials to prove to the Ethics Commission that a violation wasn't "willful" under the definition in statute. The measure will clear up a "misinterpretation of the existing law" that's been allowing officials to avoid fines by claiming the violation was unintentional, Giunchigliani said. Walton lays the blame for the lack of more action on Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature. "There is a defensive there, you sense it on both sides of the aisle," he said. "Ethics (reform) means they are coming after us - them the people of Nevada and us the guys to hold office." |
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